Health staff `unhappy with their lot'

Thursday 11 September 1997 23:02 BST

Click to followThe Independent Online

Nurses, midwives and physiotherapists will submit bids to the Government today for better pay.

To back their case they will present evidence from a survey of health professionals that widespread discontent at increasing workloads, stress and lack of career development is leading to shortages of physiotherapists, occupational therapists and radiographers. The survey found that 70 per cent of these health workers have considered leaving their current job with more than half looking for work outside the NHS.

The evidence will be presented to the Pay Review Body on behalf of Professions Allied to Medicine (PAM) which include art therapists, physiotherapists, dietitians, chiropodists and occupational therapists. Joce Prudence, secretary for PAM staff, said: "The survey provides yet more evidence of a crisis in the NHS ... The NHS is going to have to be a better employer if the crisis is to be solved."